Resources
Some background and introduction to the Sanborn Map Collection at the Library of Congress.
Introduction to the Sanborn Collection
Guidelines for accessing and using the Sanborn Map Collection at the Library of Congress. Includes detailed guidelines on interpreting keys, legends, colors, symbology and indexes.
About the Sanborn Collection
A primer and resource guide on finding, accessing and interpreting Sanborn maps from the Library of Congress.
LOC: Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps – A Resource Guide
This GIS tool will help pinpoint the correct Sanborn fire insurance atlas volume for locations in large cities. As there are usually many volumes that cover larger cities, with shifting volume boundaries, it can be confusing or difficult to ascertain which volume covers a specific area or address. With this tool, researchers can enter an address which will immediately show which volume covers that area and a link to any online images.
Hosted by the UC Berkeley Earth Sciences & Map Library and compiled by the late Philip Hoehn, this comprehensive list catalogs coverage areas, dates and owning institutions for Sanborn maps housed throughout North America.
Hosted by Historical Information Gatherers, this site offers “educational and support materials for use and understanding of Sanborn maps”.
Background and instructions for using online Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlases. Requires a current LAPL card to access.
An online finding aid for locating CSUN Sanborn volumes within Los Angeles County.
A glossary of abbreviations and obscure terminology found within Sanborn map sheets.
Information about finding maps and aerial photographs in the UC Berkeley Library collections and beyond.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps and Resources from UC Berkeley Library
From their ornate title pages to intricate legends, the Sanborn Company leveraged highly detailed and consistent typographic applications to label their atlases.
An online finding aid for UCLA’s physical holdings of Sanborn maps.
Explore a range of fire insurance maps from the Newberry. These are valuable for historians, urban planners and researchers studying historical cityscapes. Access is available through the Newberry Library’s catalog and digital collections.
Learn how to interpret and understand the color, symbology and notations associated with Sanborn Maps. This is paramount to unlocking the structural and cultural data contained within them.
Hosted by Historical Information Gatherers, this is a scanned copy of the 1936 Surveyors’ Manual published by the Sanborn Map Company. Contained within is a complete overview of best practices and other guidelines to be used by the company’s fleet of surveyors tasked with collecting detailed information in the field.
Articles
Tobiah Black looks at the history and continued use of Sanborn maps as a means to understanding city planning and a tool to research family histories.
From Fire Hazards to Family Trees: The Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps function as comprehensive historical documents, providing profound insights into urban evolution, architectural configurations, and socio-economic structures or urban areas large and small.
Originally crafted for assessing fire risk, Sanborn maps inadvertently captured the evolution or urban spaces, providing detailed insights for the development of cities over time.
From Greg Miller at All Over the Map, some backstory on how CSUN came to acquire its collection of Sanborn atlases.
From Ann Schmidt at The Daily Mail, some additional backstory on how the CSUN Sanborn Collection came about.